Dan Janison on Tier VI: From the way public-employee unions attack it, you’d think the change would send New York to the brink of a Wisconsin-style scuttling of collective bargaining rights. And from the elected officials who pushed and supported it, this reduced plan for future workers draws glowing accolades like “transformational” and “historic” and a blow to “special interests.”//The truth, less dramatic, is that new employees, both union and nonunion, will still receive pensions with defined benefits, local governments will still face massive pension liabilities and the state Constitution will still bar current employees from having benefits cut.//Life will go on more or less as we knew it. But yes, the public does stand to save some money in what budget wonks like to call the out-years, which means the civil-service job gets slightly less remunerative.//In the patchwork of state and municipal retirement plans, we’re talking about raising the retirement age from 62 to 63, increasing employee contributions on a progressive scale, and slicing from 200 to 100 the number of sick days and leave days that can be used for retirement service credit, and other such measures. (Newsday)

Azi Paybarah on Sen. Adriano Espaillat’s primary challenge to Rep. Charlie Rangel: City Councilman Leroy Comrie, a three-term Democrat from Queens who is African-American, said Rangel deserved to be re-elected because he can be more effective than a freshman replacement.//”Charlie Rangel is an institution in that community,” Comrie told me. “With the leverage that he has and the power that he still has. He’s been more than open and gracious in sharing with the Hispanic community there. I think it’s in their best interest to keep Charlie Rangel in Washington D.C. to deliver for the delegation.” (CapNY)